The Needle That Pointed at the Wall

Every day at noon, Emmeline climbs the bell tower. There are ninety steps. She counts them out loud.

At the top, she hangs her coat on a hook. The window is open. Her grandfather's compass stays in the pocket. She likes to know that it is there. She rings the bell twelve times. Then she goes home. She does this every day. The village hears her bell and knows it is noon.

On Monday, the compass is not in her pocket.

Emmeline checks the left pocket and the right pocket. She checks the stairs. She checks her bag. Nothing. It is five to twelve. The bell waits.

"Not today," she says. "I ring first. I look later."

She rings the bell. The sound rolls over the roofs and fields. Then she searches the whole top room. She looks under the bench and behind the ropes.

The compass is on the far window ledge. Its lid is open. Emmeline stares at it.

It never leaves her pocket. She is sure of that.

Then she sees the needle. It does not point north. It points at the wall. It points at a wide gap between two stones.

Emmeline turns the compass in her hand. The needle swings back to north. She puts it on the ledge again. The needle swings back to the wall.

"That is wrong," she says.

She walks around the room with the compass in her hand. By the bench, the needle is normal. By the east window, it shakes. Near the gap, it turns and will not move.

Emmeline does not like it. For twenty years, the tower never surprises her. It is a quiet place. The stones are old, and the ropes are plain. Now something in the wall pulls at her little friend.

At the bottom of the stairs, she meets Rania. Rania is the new clock mender. She carries a bag of tools.

"You look worried," says Rania.

"My compass was on the wrong ledge," says Emmeline. "And its needle likes the wall."

Rania laughs. Then she sees that Emmeline is not joking.

"Show me," she says.

They climb together. Rania looks at the compass for a long time. She holds it near the gap. The needle shakes and points straight at it.

"Something in there pulls the needle," Rania says. "Something with a lot of iron."

"Or a magnet."

"A magnet," Rania agrees. "But why is a magnet in a tower wall?"

Emmeline does not know. She thinks about the village. For two weeks, small things disappear. The café loses its best spoon. The mayor cannot find two keys. Someone takes a ring of silver buttons from the school.

"Maybe it is a thief," she says. "A thief who only wants small shiny things."

"A very small thief," says Rania. She points at the ledge. A single black feather lies in the dust.

They both look at it. Then they look at the gap.

Rania takes a small tool from her bag. She works carefully around one loose stone. It slides out with a scrape.

Behind it is a nest. It is full of treasure. There are four spoons and a handful of buttons. There are three keys, a coin, and a tiny silver bell. In the middle sits a small horseshoe magnet. It has a faded label. It says SCHOOL SCIENCE BOX.

"No," says Emmeline. "It cannot be."

"A jackdaw," says Rania. "They love shiny things."

Emmeline starts to laugh. She laughs until she needs to sit down. The magnet, the spoons, the keys, the buttons.

"It took my compass too," she says. "It dropped it on the way."

"Then the magnet made your needle crazy," says Rania.

Rania lifts the keys and spoons out of the nest. Then she stops and looks at Emmeline.

"We cannot take everything," she says. "The bird lives here."

Emmeline thinks. A jackdaw has a right to a home. But not to the café owner's spoon.

"We take the keys and the spoons," she decides. "We leave the coin and the little bell. And we leave the magnet and a few buttons."

"The school will not mind?"

"They will want the magnet back," says Emmeline. "But I will tell them the truth. A bird borrowed it first."

Rania fits the stone back, but only halfway. Now there is a small door in the wall.

Emmeline puts the compass in her pocket. Her hand stays on the lid for a moment. Then she goes down the ninety steps, counting out loud.

The next day, she climbs the tower at the same time. She counts the ninety steps. At the top, she leaves her compass in her coat.

A black bird sits on the rail. It holds a silver button in its beak. It turns the button in the light. It looks like a person reading a letter.

Emmeline rings the bell. The bird does not move. It only closes its eyes. It listens to the bell, calm and still.